Off Grid Solar Makes Some Questionable Claims

As a reporter at Greentech Media, my email inbox is pelted daily with scores of green product and clean energy press releases, some interesting, most not.

There's also the category of, "Huh?"

These include press releases for bidets (they eliminate the use of toilet paper), green and good-for-the-environment cigarettes, and perpetual motion machines of all varieties. The perpetual motion machine inventors tend to come from Eastern Europe and Pakistan for reasons unknown.

Falling more into the latter category, I suspect, is the press release I just received from Off Grid Solar of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which claims:

"A manufacturing plant is being outfitted as of this announcement in Nevada which will nearly triple the Florida production output, which is expected to be approximately 5.25 million watts per 8-hour shift daily, initially."

Evidently, the black swan has landed. Off Grid is going to provide enough photovoltaic panels to satisfy the needs of the 2010 U.S. market at a record-setting efficiency with an unprecedented warranty -- with panels built in Florida.

The founder of Off Grid Solar is Jim McKirdy and according to Randy Abraham, writing in the Sun Sentinel in May of last year, McKirdy "has located a site for his factory, lined up engineers and project managers, ordered equipment and raw materials, and is applying for state and county grants." Abraham was bylined as a "Special Correspondent" in the article, although he now works for Off Grid Solar in a public relations and marketing role.

Abraham wrote that "Fort Lauderdale officials recently awarded a $450,000 grant to a company that is working to open a factory to build solar panels and hire 150 workers over the next three years. The payout will be over four years, and money will be released one year after actual jobs are created. The state will pay out 80 percent of the total, with the city and county contributing 10 percent each, said a city spokesman."

I contacted Off Grid Solar as well as SolarBest Energy, their exclusive distributor, for their response. Randy Abraham of Off Grid Solar responded to my email inquiry and verified that they did in fact have 850 megawatts on order by "government agencies, developers of solar farms, and distributors." He added, "Our first factory in Fort Lauderdale is projected to be fully operational in the second quarter of this year. Already, key hires have been made by the President and Chief Science Officer in Production, Engineering, Sales, Marketing and Finance. By the end of 2012 we expect to have three factories on line in the Fort Lauderdale area. Our workforce at that time is expected to total 600."

The 850 megawatt figure raised a red flag, of course, but not as much as my next exchange.

The firm sent me a document with this illustration:

I asked him about the firm's triple-junction solar cells, which is what I interpreted this diagram to illustrate, and Abraham responded, "Eric, I am not familiar with the term 'triple-junction solar cells.' We are building panels -- maybe the graphic was confusing, but it was intended to be an illustration -- not chips. We stand behind our claims for efficiency and orders to date."

Again, those efficiencies are more than 46 percent at the panel level and the orders are 850 megawatts.

At this point, I felt I was losing my grip on reality.

It gets worse. Here's an excerpt from a document sent to me by an actual representative of the company. The text is printed as received.

Our 'Next Generation' (NXGen) products have been developed for all types of off-grid applications but the technology has powerful and profitable applications within the commercial interconnected marketplace.

Many people are already using our electronically designed photovoltaic cells to capture the sun’s energy and produce electric power to operate many products that make our lives easier. Solar landscaping lighting and the solar calculator were some of the products we developed along with space applications and Aids to Navigation Systems (ATONS). Now there are millions of our products all over the world.

Using a proprietary and patented process Off Grid Solar has achieved a panel efficiency rate of over 46%. These products were originally designed to function in low light and harsh climatic conditions. Compared to conventional polysilicon designs that absorb only 40% of all available energy, our panels can absorb and convert 98% of the entire electromagnetic spectrum. All OGS products contain multiple layers of converting potential that seeks out Ultra Violet, Infrared and ambient radiation. This enables an OGS panel to expand the solar window to over 9 hours; this represents over 4 hours of additional solar production each day.

NXGenSolar™ panels are not adversely affected by temperature; the operational window is between -300º & +600º Fahrenheit. This makes them highly effective even in extremely hot or cold conditions, since energy is produced at a consistent rate.

Off Grid Solar uses its competitive edge of economic justification to turn potential customers into qualified projects. While other companies often highlight the positive environmental impact that their designs offer, Off Grid Solar will also offer superior economic justifications for their products. Since the technology being used is more efficient than conventional solar products, our technology provides evidence that the customer can harvest more energy per day and thus create greater positive cash flow for a longer period of time.

Based on competitive c-Si systems Off Grid Solar offers superior profit potential based on the enhanced productivity of the technology and the reduced to-market costs. Additionally, these modules carry a 56-year production warranty; within years 1-15 energy loss shall not exceed 5% of ratings and over the remaining 46 years losses shall not exceed 10%. Furthermore, compared to competitive products that produce approximately 13.2w/sf (industry average), OGS panels can exceed 78w/sf thereby increasing project yield and profits.

I especially love the "-300º & +600º" temperature range, not to mention the claim that the company's "panels can absorb and convert 98% of the entire electromagnetic spectrum." I was not able to find any Earth-based patents listed under the founder's name or under the company's name.

Perhaps there is a physicist amongst our readership who can explain this technology to me. Or an English teacher or mental health professional that can explain the document.